Champions…One More Time

Once again, the Southern Oregon Junior Summits have shown their skills and won their division.  In our recent trip to Santa Rosa, with hopes of getting back what was lost in our home tournament, the team put on the best performance I have seen from them to date.  We won our first two games and them lost our third to Santa Rosa.  Because of our team record and goals for vs. goals against ratio, we made it into the finals in the #1 position.  The second team would be either Santa Rosa or Channel Islands, based on the outcome of the Oakland Channel Island game.  It turned out to be Channel Islands.

What a game it was.  We scored the first goal and then the game was tied up 1-1.  The Riptide (Channel Islands) took the lead 2-1 only to be evened up at 2-2.  Play progressed and we found ourselves down 3-2 only to once again come from behind and tie things up at 3.  Let me drop in here the fact that we had out shot the Riptide something like 24 to 6 in the first 2 periods, so the team was wondering “what else can we do to get the win here?”  We dominated the game and just had trouble putting the biscuit in the basket as they say.  We hit several cross bars and posts, had many opportunities that just slipped wide, and many more opportunities that were thwarted at the last second.

Okay, jumping back into the game.  with only 2:45 seconds left in the third period, the Riptide once again scored to take the lead 4-3.  Our team was crushed.  Players lay on the ice in disbelief and dare I say grief!  We called time out and told the team they had all the time they needed to come back yet again.  We had done it twice before and could do it again.  “Shots on net” was the charge.  After the time out, the team took the ice and Cy Jenson took the puck over the blue line and floated a light wrist shot on net to start the attack.  The idea was to generate a rebound, but the goalie had trouble with it and it went in!  4-4.  We got ourselves into some penalty trouble in the third and had to shift our lines around a bit.  We tried Jeremy Wu, one of our star defenseman on right wing, but after a short shift said he could not get out of the defensive mind zone and he asked that another player take the spot so he did not risk a mistake.  (Worth noting here that we chose Jeremy after he stole the puck to create a break away goal while we were down 3 on 5 in the penalty kill!)  A coach later told me that not only did he make the play, but he just about “pulled the goalie out of his shorts” with a huge fake that sealed the deal.

So in steps Dylan Wu, another star defenseman.  He takes up the right wing slot and immediately drives the net after Cy won the face off.  Dylan circled the net and stuffed the puck in on the wrap around!  5-4 with only 1:30 or so to go in the game.  We ran a tight defensive line to shut things down, but unfortunately took another penalty in our zone.  With the other team’s goalie pulled they ran a 6 on 4 power play that was broken up with only a few seconds remaining by Wyatt Spence who banked the puck out of our zone off the boards and smack dab into the middle of the empty net.

Once our blood pressure dropped back to normal, we drank in the success of another fun tournament.  We look forward to what the future holds.  We know we need to practice and train for our remaining games and start planning for next year.  Stay tuned for more as the future unfolds.

One last note.  This season has been full of amazing statistics and achievements.  In this, our last official tournament of the year, Lindsey Courntey scoared her first goal with the team.  This is an amazing achievement because that now means that every player on our team has now scored a goal in tournament play.  That is very exciting.  Finally, some stats:  Our team record in Western Regional tournament play is 13-2.  We played three West coast tournaments and made it to the finals of all three.  We were champions of two and runner up in one.  Not a bad season indeed!

Heading South Once Again

We’re heading down to Santa Rosa next week for our last scheduled tournament of the 2008-2009 season.  Although we play additional games through the remainder of the season, we are not currently signed up for tournament play after the Santa Rosa event.  We are all super excited and are looking forward to another fun tournament!

The stage is set for a great series of games.  As you may remember, it was Santa Rosa who we beat at the Silver Stick to get our chance in Pelham, Ontario at the International Finals.  You may also remember that it was Santa Rosa who beat us 3-0 in the championship game of our home tournament over MLK weekend after losing to us in the opening round 0-2.  There is no question that we have our hearts set on taking the trophy from their home tournament and bringing it back to Medford.

We do have some sick and injured players on the roster that may affect our chances; however, we hope to be healthy and ready to play come next Friday, the thirteenth.  Okay, that’s a little creepy for those who are superstitious (that would include most hockey players I might add), but that also gives us an advantage.  Paiute Morrison, our goalie, is number 13, so we are playing on his day.  Indeed the goalies have been the deciding factor in all three games we have played against each other this season.  We won our first match up 2-0 and our second match up by the same score.  Santa Rosa won our third match up 3-0.  Who will get the shut out this time?